[531] _Annual Register_, xxi. 208. See also a fine panegyric on O'Leary, published in the _Irish Quarterly Review_, vii. 686. [532] This is, no doubt, M. Perrin, of whom some particulars will be found, _infra_, p. 246. [533] Rutland to Sydney, most secret, Aug. 26, 1784. [534] Rutland's letter, to which this is an answer, seems to have been destroyed. [535] My first idea was that, unless it were possible to trace some of the written reports in which Froude insinuates that O'Leary kept a daily record of espionage, his guilt as a spy must be doubted; but, judging by Sydney's testimony, the guilt seems _primâ facie_ proven, the absence of such letters notwithstanding. O'Leary was not much of a letter-writer: few of any sort appear in his memoirs. The biographers tell us that when producing the great essays by which he acquired fame, his practice was to dictate them while he paced his study.--W. J. F. [536] _Life of Rev. A. O'Leary_, by Rev. T. R. England, 1822, pp. 234 _et seq._ In 1788, Orde himself received a pension of 1,700_l._ a year, charged on the Irish Establishment. [537] _Irish Parl. Debates_, i. 293. [538] From the word 'sermons' I thought, at one time, that O'Leary was summoned--on the re-appearance of the 'Whiteboys'--to administer the dissuasives which, some years previously, had produced good effect. I have diligently searched newspaper files and contemporary pamphlets, and I can find no letter, or reported sermon, addressed by O'Leary to the Whiteboys in 1784. Two years later, he certainly tried to reason with them. The words 'if we can depend on him,' lead to the inference that O'Leary gave Orde some personal assurance as regards his willingness to make the inquiries desired. [539] Froude's _English in Ireland_, ii. 413. [540] Musgrave's _Memoirs of the Rebellion_, pp. 50-1. (Dublin, 1801.) [541] In 1784, the very year that O'Leary consented, as we are told, 'to dive to the bottom of secrets,' a gold medal was presented to him by the Cork Amicable Society. 'Father O'Leary is represented in the habit of his order,' writes England, 'crushing with his right foot the Hydra of religious persecution; with his right hand he opens the gates of the Temple of Concord; whilst with his left he beckons his countrymen (emblematically represented by the harp) to enter the sacred edifice, forgetful of their prejudices against each other. The genius of his country is represented with extended arms over his head, each bearing a crown--the one of Science, the other of Victory.' [542] See Attorney-General Fitzgibbon's account of this scare, _infra_, p. 245. [543] The Chief Secretary for Ireland.